After the Opera
by Regina Raptorum
Summary: No one could hold the biggest company in the world in her hand and throw it all away for nothing, and Amber wants to know what kind of game Shilo is playing. Rated M for Amber's mouth. One shot, MAJOR SPOILERS. Please RR.


**Author's** **Note: **So I was watching Repo! the other night, and had some interesting thoughts. This is largely based on inferences drawn from certain expressions and actions, and some theories about events. I'm just not sure if I've got the characters right. Funny, though, how I seem to have a rather sympathetic take on my least favorite character. Though I always did think that Amber was the only one who felt true affection for her father. Also, SPOILERS. Very much spoilers.

Anyway. The fanfic muse feeds on reviews, and I really am curious about what you think about this, so please review.

I don't own REPO! The Genetic Opera, and I'm not making any money off this. So no RepoMan and don't sue.

* * *

The Wallace house had always been a rather cold, sterile tomb of a place. At least, it had been for the past seventeen years, and Nathan Wallace's death had done little to change that in the few days since Shilo had rather violently inherited all he had to leave.

Amber Sweet was _not_ impressed.

She stepped out of the limo, curling her lip in disgust at the cracked front of the building. It looked like it might topple over at any point. Really, and with what the man had been _paid_...

But Amber Sweet had always had little real interest in Nathan Wallace, knowing him in a sort of vague way as her own father's best Repo Man. She had even less interest in him now that he was dead. Amber was extremely self-centered, like all of the Largos, and saw no point in obsessing over the dead, now that they weren't a threat to her. She'd even let Blind Mag rest in peace now that the woman was out of the way, and Amber had _really_ hated _her_.

No, now it was Shilo Wallace that she needed to pay attention to. Shilo, who had held GeneCo in the palm of her hand and had thrown it away. It was something that was just alien to Amber, and she didn't trust it. She'd learned early on not to trust anything anyone did, and dealing with her brothers and her father in particular had led her to believe that no one ever did anything for _free_. No, Shilo Wallace wanted something, something besides GeneCo, and Amber wanted to know what.

And if Little Miss Wallace would have to have an unfortunate _accident._

She ignored the two female bodyguards she'd inherited from her father, along with the company. She'd had bodyguards all her life, and had ceased to see them as anything but occasionally useful permanent fixtures. These two were just slightly more valuable furniture. The two women were, of course, very professional, and stayed in lockstep a pace behind Amber, guns cocked and ready in case anyone should be so foolish as to threaten the new CEO.

The gate had been left open since the night of the opera, and Amber marched directly to the door. She knocked on it insistently. It was a couple of minutes before Shilo appeared timidly at the top of the stairs, then hesitantly opened the door. Amber was losing patience, and pushed past the other girl as soon as the door opened.

Shilo was free of her opressive father, though it would take her quite some time to work through the timidity he'd ingrained in her since birth. She took two startled steps back, looking from Amber to her intimidating bodyguards uncertainly.

"You made quite a show at the opera," Amber said coldly, without waiting for Shilo to initiate the conversation. "You're on the cover of every magazine worth paying attention to."

Shilo flushed, and looked away. She was still sickly pale, and the blush did not look good on her. "I... I didn't know that."

"Bullshit," Amber said, crossing her arms. "What did you expect, when my father flat out offered you GeneCo on a silver platter? You know, my brothers wanted to kill you right away. You're lucky I got the company instead of them. They can't piss me off now, and they know it." She took several steps toward Shilo, invading her personal space. "What I want to know is, what kind of game are you playing?"

"G-game?" Shilo backed away, bumping into the bannister. "I don't-"

"Listen here, bitch. I'm on to you. No one would have said no to GeneCo, not unless they wanted something else." Amber glowered. She hadn't had any Z lately, because she needed to be at her best right now with the company in flux and her two psychotic brothers in an uproar. But it sure as hell made her an irritable bitch.

Shilo blinked. "I never wanted GeneCo. I never asked for it."

"No shit. Daddy wouldn't have offered to leave it to you if you had," Amber sneered. "But a windfall dropped right into your lap like that? No one would have said_ no_, not without some strings. So I want to know what the fuck you want. And I warn you. I don't fly off the handle like Luigi, but crossing me is just as bad an idea as crossing my dad was."

Shilo cringed, backing away again. "Really. I don't want anything. Except... except to be left alone. I don't want to be on the covers of the magazines. I just... I just want to go outside. I want to see what the world is."

"What are you, in fucking kindergarten?" Amber crossed her arms, and tapped her spike heel on the tile floor. "Get real."

Shilo shook her head, a little more confidently. "No. Really. I couldn't-" She looked away and swallowed. "Dad wouldn't let me go out. The first time I snuck out was... well, a few days before the opera."

Amber looked at her incredulously. "You can't be fucking serious." Shilo gave a tiny nod. "Well, I'm not giving you anything. Not money, not surgery, not anything. You had your fucking chance."

Shilo teared up a little. "It wasn't _worth_ it," she whimpered. "I _know_ GeneCo is the biggest company in the world, I _know_ that you're the richest family in the world, I _know_ that I could have had all the money in the world. Even_ I_ know that. You can't _not_ know that. But..." She wiped her eyes. "Rotti Largo wanted me to sh-shoot dad. I c-couldn't do that. N... Not even... G-GeneCo was... worth _that_."

Amber stopped dead. To be perfectly honest, that was something that had never occurred to her. Very likely, it had never occurred to her father that there would be something someone valued more than money until the very instant it happened. "Anyone else would have done it in a second," she said harshly. "What makes _you_ so fucking special?"

Shilo wiped the tears away, and stalled a little by adjusting her wig. "...Would you? If the positions were reversed... I mean, if it had been my dad handing _you_ the gun, would you have shot _your_ dad?"

"Of c-" She stopped. Amber wasn't really given much to thinking. She didn't enjoy it. It was, however, something she'd have to get used to, unless she wanted one of her brothers snatching the company out from under her. And the question _did_ make her think. If it had been Luigi or Pavi put in that position, they'd have done it in a heartbeat. Less than a heartbeat. Gleefully. But would she have done it? She honestly thought about it, and was surprised by her own answer. "...No. I wouldn't have done it."

Shilo nodded. "I don't... I don't think... your dad... really understood. That there are some things... worth more than money. And... even as mad as I was at dad, and as scared, and confused... I couldn't do that."

Amber snorted. "Nothing was worth more to daddy than money, and look where that got him." She would never admit to it, of course, but she was just the tiniest bit saddened by her father's death. And even she wasn't self-absorbed enough to not know she was probably the only one. "I still don't understand you people," she said, returning to her previous tone. And she didn't. She would never understand the Shilos, the Mags, even the Nathans of the world. "But I suppose you're not a threat to me, anyway."

Shilo shook her head earnestly. "No. Honest. I don't want any part of GeneCo. I don't want any part of anything. I'm... I'm okay." She straightened her wig again. "I want... I want to try getting along on my own."

"Good fucking luck," Amber snorted. "If you've really never been outside, you'll be dead in a week. What the hell are you going to do for a living?"

"I don't know yet. I have a little money, that should hold me until I can figure something out." At Amber's pointed glance, Shilo flushed again and looked away. "Mag... left everything she had to dad. I guess because she'd been mom's best friend. And dad... well, he didn't have anyone else to leave anything to."

"Hmph." Amber made a dismissive gesture. "I couldn't give a fuck. However, it _is_ best if you disappear. You could make things... difficult for me, if you're around. And we don't want that, _do_ we?"

Shilo gave her a ghost of a smile. "No. But I was going to leave anyway. I... I was actually packing."

"Good," Amber said curtly, and turned to go. "Leave, and don't come back. I don't give flying fuck what you do or where you go." Her glance flicked over to Shilo one last time. "But GeneCo won't come after you. Fair enough?"

"Fair enough."


End file.
